A stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life, 
SUGARCANE, the debut feature 
documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning. In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in 
Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools was brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities. Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation, SUGARCANE illuminates the beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to 
persevere. Co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie join us for a conversation on how their focus 
changed during the filming of SUGARCANE, getting to know the dedicated people like Whitney Spearing and Charlene Belleau who devoted themselves to uncovering the repugnant history of St. Joseph’s Residential School and the “Indian Problem”, capturing the unfolding relationship between Julian and his father, Ed Archie NoiseCat and filming the disturbing conversation between Former First Nation Chief Rick Gilbert and the Vatican’s Superior General Louis Lougen concerning san acknowledgment or apology from the Catholic Church regarding their administration of Residential Schools in North America.
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For more go to: nationalgeographic.com/sugarcane
About the filmmaker – Julian Brave NoiseCat is a writer, filmmaker and student of Salish art and history. His first documentary, Sugarcane, directed alongside Emily Kassie, follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at the Indian residential school NoiseCat’s family was sent to near Williams Lake, British Columbia. Sugarcane premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival where NoiseCat and Kassie won the Directing Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition. A proud member of the Canim Lake Band Tsescen and descendant of the LilWat Nation of Mount Currie, he is concurrently finishing his first book, We Survived the Night, which will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in North America, Profile Books in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, Albin Michel in France and Aufbau Verlag in Germany. NoiseCat’s journalism has appeared in dozens of publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Yorker and has been recognized with many awards including the 2022 American Mosaic Journalism Prize, which honors excellence in long-form, narrative or deep reporting on stories about underrepresented and/or misrepresented groups in the present American landscape. In 2021, NoiseCat was named to the TIME100 Next list of emerging leaders alongside the starting point guard of his fantasy basketball team, Luka Doncic. For more go to: julianbravenoisecat.com
About the filmmaker – Emily Kassie is an Emmy® and Peabody®-nominated investigative journalist and filmmaker. Kassie shoots, directs and reports stories on geopolitical conflict, humanitarian crises, corruption and the people caught in the crossfire. Her work for The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Netflix, and others ranges from drug and weapons trafficking in the Saharan desert, to immigrant detention in the United States. In 2021, she smuggled into Taliban territory with PBS Newshour correspondent Jane Ferguson to report on their imminent siege of Kabul and targeted killing of female leaders. Her work has been honored with multiple Edward R. Murrow, World Press Photo and National Press Photographers awards. Her multimedia feature on the economic exploitation of the Syrian and West African refugee crises won the Overseas Press Club Award and made her the youngest person to win a National Magazine award. She previously oversaw visual journalism at Highline, Huffington Post’s investigative magazine, and at The Marshall Project. Kassie was named to Forbes 30 under 30 in 2020 and is a 2023 New America fellow. Her first documentary, I Married My Family’s Killer, following couples in post-genocide Rwanda, won a Student Academy Award in 2015. For more go to: emilykassie.com
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“The product of humane and insightful filmmakers who are determined to never let anyone forget” – Variety
“A powerful reckoning” – The Hollywood Reporter
“Beautiful and compassionate” – PASTE
“As much a piece of art about the sins of the past as it is about living with the memory of those sins in the present.” – Indiewire
“Sugarcane is essential viewing. Emily Kassie and Julian Brave Noise Cat’s documentary film is a haunting and overwhelmingly powerful examination of religious assimilation.” – M.N. Miller, Geek Vibes Nation
“DEVASTATING…This is no superficial recounting of yet another injustice against native people. It goes bone deep. An important record and an artistic reckoning.” – Finn Halligan, SCREEN DAILY
“This is documentary filmmaking at its best. A credit to the genre. Compelling, spiritual and enlightening.” – Dwight Brown, DwightBrownInk.com